Martin Votruba

Jánošík. The True Story.

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With over two centuries of folk and literary traditon behind it and nine film versions from a cartoon to a TV series and a spoof, the theme of the benign highway robber Jánošík has survived through the 21st century, fixed up with visuals to match. As in this sequence, Jánošík: The True Story intends to attract by familiar folkloric entertainment, themes of jealousy and infidelity-or-virtue (Jánošík's, Václav Jiráček, seductress Zuzana, Katarzyna Herman, put a spell on him), resplendent and nationally symbolic mountain landscapes, eroticism, religious magic (the folklorized Virgin Mary played by the former supermodel Małgorzata Bela) – all delivered through a variety of techniques punctuated by arch details, like Jánošík's and Zuzana's intertwined braids here (invented before the Na'vi lovers' "neural queues" in Avatar). Compare Jánošík 1921 and Jánošík 1935.

Dialogue:

Virgin Mary: "Your handsome body could really be wasted. And what about your soul... My heart aches when I think of it."

Jánošík: "I'm unhappy about that. I'm sorry if you hurt because of me. I'm really sorry."